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Researchers Modify T-Cells, Make Them HIV Resistant
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Wed Jul 02, 2008 04:26 PM
from the changing-the-locks dept.
from the changing-the-locks dept.
DieNadel writes to share that naturally occurring proteins called "zinc fingers" are being used in a new approach to AIDS treatment. Using modified T-Cells with the zinc fingers, researchers at the Pennsylvania School of Medicine have shown a reduction in viral load in mice. "'By inducing mutations in the CCR5 gene using zinc finger proteins, we've reduced the expression of CCR5 surface proteins on T cells, which is necessary for the AIDS virus to enter these immune system cells,' explains first author Elena Perez, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Penn. 'This approach stops the AIDS virus from entering the T cells because it now has an introduced error into the CCR5 gene.'"
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Zinc you say? (Score:4, Funny)
Aren't we having a zinc shortage [slashdot.org]? Get it from these fingers!!
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I knew all those old pennies would come in handy for something.
OMGZombies! (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You're probably American, but you might be glad to know that there's a place in England where people could quite literally say "t' t-cells attack t' virus". Not quite what you're looking for, but close enough!
Now, put t' kettle on!
Re:OMGZombies! (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
law of unintended consequences... (Score:5, Insightful)
what *else* do these surface proteins on the T cell do?
maybe there is something those altered structures do that we will miss when they stop performing their function...
not everything in the body is superfluous like the appendix or wisdom teeth.
Re:law of unintended consequences... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:law of unintended consequences... (Score:5, Informative)
T-cells are part of the immune system, and perhaps you remember this recent infamous TGN1412 experiment involving T-Cells [wikipedia.org]
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re:law of unintended consequences... (Score:5, Funny)
No, not zombies, corpses.
So... pre-zombies?
We scientific types prefer to call them zombie precursors.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Considering AIDS eventually leads to painful death, what function would this hinder that would make things worse?
Re:law of unintended consequences... (Score:4, Informative)
Well, I am no AIDS expert but from what I understand is HIV does not really kill anybody. AIDS the resulting condition of HIV, is Auto Immune Difficency Sydrome. Basically you immune system stops working and all the other little virus out there take over start to take over all your other cells and with nothing to stop them; that kills you.
So if you screw-up someones immune system in the name of HIV proofing and that causes it to not work then they will have AIDS anyway even if you do manage to kill off the HIV infection. So yea if it turns out these things are "important" you might destroy the immune system faster then HIV would have.
Parent
Re:law of unintended consequences... (Score:5, Informative)
Some people are born with a mutation on their CCR5 gene and therefore do not have a working CCR5 receptor on the surface of their T cells. These rare individuals are immune to HIV infection and seemingly are not affected by the non-functional CCR5 protein. The zinc finger approach aims to mimic this natural immunity.
It would appear that these surface proteins are "superfluous", or at least not really necessary.
Parent
Re:law of unintended consequences... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, that's it. The article abstract is a lot more intelligible than the press release:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18587387 [nih.gov]
They're using Zinc Finger Nucleases:
http://www.zincfingers.org/scientific-background.htm [zincfingers.org]
to target and disrupt the CCR5 gene.
Re:law of unintended consequences... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
whatever function they have, it's probably not as important as not dying of AIDS
Upon what data do you base that assumption? Is not dying of AIDS more important than not dying in screaming agony? [naturalnews.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
considering the kind of death that is in store for someone who is severely immuno-compromised, the adverse effects from this treatment would need to be pretty bad to be considered worse. that and there isn't any convincing evidence to my knowledge that this method is any worse than doing nothing to mitigate the effects of an HIV infection which doesn't mean that there can't be any that we don't know about, it means that we would need more testing- in any case, di
Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome (Score:5, Funny)
Haven't we learned not to modify T-Cells already?
Thats sick (Score:3, Funny)
This is probably good news (Score:5, Insightful)
But this technology may provide a way to defend against this virus. By changing the "shape" of our T-cells it will prevent the virus from recognizing its target. This would render it ineffective and be effective against the numerous variants.
Of course, this is still early in the development cycle. There's always the chance of unintended consequences...
Re:This is probably good news (Score:5, Informative)
This does not make the T-cell invisible to HIV, it sets a trap.
T Cell (in sexy voice): How about it, Mr. HIV, do you want to come into my place?
HIV: Om nom nom let me put my arms around you baby... wait, where the fuck do I put my left arm? I can't penetrate without both arms around you!
T cell: All your binding proteins are belong to me.
HIV: I'm going to go hit on someone else. Let go of my right arm, you bastard!
T cell: Om nom nom
Well ok, it's a stretch, the T cell doesn't eat the virus at the end.
But the zinc fingers don't disguise the T-cell, they keep the T-cell from expressing one of the antigens on its surface. So instead of the two binding sites needed for the T-cell to be infected, it only shows one.
Parent
Re:This is probably good news (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
As for changing the genetic code, that's not what you're doing. Instead you are putting out a honeypot to attract the virus. The virus can still infect normal cells, but the modified cells can't be infected -- if you have enough of them, then the normal cells can go about their business. Here's a very simplified model:
Say each generation
Re: (Score:2)
Now, HIV may mutate so that the virus wouldn't recognize the "T-cell inverse", but there's a limit to how much it can mutate before the receptor fails to connect t
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I'm skeptical.
HIV is known to evolve affinity for new binding sites: http://endogenousretrovirus.blogspot.com/2008/02/how-just-so-story-turns-into-just-so.html [blogspot.com]
Can it evolve around this change? I don't know, but it's very probable.
Worst summary ever... (Score:5, Informative)
Talk about completely misreading even the one paragraph blurb. Zinc fingers are a large group of protein sub-structures which are used to interact with DNA. This group used them to induce a specific mutation which now seems to be HIV resistant How long this will last is really up in the air though, HIV and all other RNA viruses evolve very quickly.
Pennsylvania School of Medicine? (Score:2)
Who wrote that summary? They can't even get the name of the school right - it's the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Man, them's some shitty editorial standards you've got there.
Re: (Score:2)
What [slashdot.org] standards [slashdot.org]?
CRC error? (Score:2)
Anyone else read this as a CRC error?
Alternatively: (Score:5, Funny)
Brilliant! (Score:5, Funny)
Nature does it too... (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
As opposed to what, being a good "con" and doing what?
I would like some background to what I can only parse as a retarded attempt to politicize with a statement that must've taken a whole 5 braincells to parrot.
Re:So what? (Score:5, Funny)
As opposed to what, being a good "con" and doing what?
Conning people?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:So what? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:4, Funny)
Because....
We run out of zinc, jackass!!!
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:4, Funny)
No, we run out of zinc in 2011 and the end of the world comes in 2012.
We could just move the end of the world forward by one year to solve the problem.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Just because the Mayans calendar ended then means what exactly? They didn't even invent, let alone UTILIZE the wheel...
I'm glad this was modded funny and not informative, every time someone says this I die a little inside...
Re:So what? (Score:5, Funny)
Just because the Mayans calendar ended then means what exactly? They didn't even invent, let alone UTILIZE the wheel...
Not only that but they were able to predict "the end of the world" and yet utterly failed to foresee the end of their own civilization?
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Just because the Mayans calendar ended then means what exactly? They didn't even invent, let alone UTILIZE the wheel...
Not only that but they were able to predict "the end of the world" and yet utterly failed to foresee the end of their own civilization?
This isn't actually true. The Mayan long count actually continues after 2012. The Mayans actually thought the world wouldn't end until sometime around 3000. The cause for the misinterpretation is in the way the Mayans wrote the date. There's a whole other digit that usually gets left out, because they saw no need to write the entire long count for things thousands of years in the future, but on a handful of totems you can actually see the entire long count for the end of the world date, and it's not until the 3000s, so we're good for a while.
Parent
Re:So what? (Score:5, Funny)
Mod +1 relieved
Phew
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I know this is offtopic to the article, but ontopic to the parent post.
Don't apologize... it's the way discussions are supposed to work. Too bad that more mods don't realize it.
This post is, sadly, only tangentally ontopic since I'm replying to something that wasn't the main point of your poost. Alas.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The world's gonna end on Diablo III's release date?
Re:Messin around with T-Cells a bad thing? (Score:4, Insightful)
What happens when someone with AIDS rapes someone?
What happens when someone with AIDS passes it along to their unborn child (a rare occasion now due to modern medicine)?
Get off your high horse tool. Some people are infected not because of their behavior, but fate. A fix should be available for them, as well as everyone else infected.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I guess when Isaac Asimov was infected with HIV from a contaminated blood transfusion he deserved to get sick and die!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I guess when Isaac Asimov was infected with HIV from a contaminated blood transfusion he deserved to get sick and die!
Absolutely, according to the original poster he shouldn't have had a transfusion without a condom, so it was completely his fault. (details are left as an exercise to the reader).
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)